SADDLE TIME ...
After a cracking weekend on which British riders won two of the spring classics, Ian Stannard taking the Het Nieuwsblad and Mark Cavendish the Kuurne-Brussels-Kuurne, the cycling season continues with gusto this week at the Paris-Nice and the 50th edition of the Tirreno-Adriatico. Paris‑Nice (from Sunday, British Eurosport) is likely to be Bradley Wiggins’ last major stage race for Team Sky and having won the Race to the Sun in 2012, he may yet take another crack at the title this week. In Italy, the Tirreno-Adriatico (from Wednesday, Eurosport) has Chris Froome facing off against Alberto Contador again after the British rider won their last meeting at the Vuelta a Andalucía. Stannard will be part of Froome’s Sky team and Cavendish, racing for Etixx-Quick-Step will target the sprint stages and taking the red points jersey.
CHELTENHAM TIPS ...
The BBC has put together a very good radio team for Cheltenham this week (begins Tuesday, 5 Live/Channel 4) which includes AP McCoy offering analysis each day and a return to the mic for John Francome, who last commentated in 2012. They are joined by the jockey Luke Harvey, the Gold Cup-winning Andrew Thornton and Peter Scudamore, as well as the first woman jockey to win at Cheltenham, Caroline Bailey, who is now a trainer. Channel Four, in turn, has a pleasing new angle with Ruby Walsh taking a mic and camera to the saddle while exercising on the course to talk punters through the prospective going for each day (The Morning Line, 8am).
IRELAND SHOWDOWN ...
Test Match Special’s Jonathan Agnew very honestly admitted recently he had changed his mind about the role of associate nations in the Cricket World Cup, concluding that they had brought so much to this tournament that the reduction of teams to 10 from 14 for the next tournament, which is to be held in England in 2019, would be a blow for the game. They have certainly served up some thrillers: Afghanistan against Scotland and Ireland versus the UAE stand out as superior to anything the England side have offered thus far. And it is Ireland that may yet provide more entertainment. Michael Atherton has said he believes they can make the quarter-finals but their run-in is tough – against India on Tuesday and Pakistan next Sunday (both Sky sports and Five Live). Should Ireland make it, their potential absence in 2019 would be all the more galling.
TV FORMULA ...
Sky continues to expand its F1 coverage as the new season begins with practice on Friday as, alongside the rather splendid idea of putting its pundits to the test on a 45m Scalextric track of Martin Brundle’s dream circuit, it is now offering eight on-board views via the Race Control iPad app. The BBC still has only 10 live races (the first in Malaysia but they also have Silverstone, Spa, Montreal, Japan and Brazil) but most intriguingly it has tempted Murray Walker out of retirement to go into its extensive archive and recount classic races from the past in Formula 1 Rewind, which will air on BBC2 at various points through the season.
